Improbable comeback slips away for Wichita State basketball in KC championship game loss
What the Shockers lack in shooting, they make up for in resilience.
But shooting is worth more than grit on the scoreboard, a lesson the Wichita State men’s basketball team learned in a 67-63 loss to San Francisco in the Hall of Fame Classic championship game at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday afternoon.
WSU’s fate seemed sealed with a double-digit loss with a poor-shooting team delivering its worst shooting performance to date, trailing by 13 points with less than six minutes left, but an improbable rally gave the Shockers a chance to either tie or take the lead in the final 30 seconds.
WSU is only left to wonder what if after Jaykwon Walton, who scored a game-high 21 points, pulled down a defensive rebound with WSU trailing 63-61, pushed the ball up the floor, slipped and lost the ball with 24 seconds left.
“He slipped. It’s part of the game, it happens,” WSU head coach Isaac Brown said. “We trust him bringing the ball up the court.”
To have a potential game-tying or game-winning shot robbed by a fluke play like slipping on the court was a particularly heart-wrenching ending for WSU, which dropped to 3-2 on the season, while San Francisco improved to 6-0.
Even with a flurry of scoring in the final five minutes, WSU finished the game shooting 35.4% from the field with 10 turnovers.
“It was tough seeing layups and other things like that not falling,” said WSU star Craig Porter, who finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and three steals, but also missed 15 field goals, four free throws and committed three turnovers.
“Nothing could fall in for us, and really at that point we were just thinking defense and getting some stops and (trying) to get some easy baskets in transition to get back in the game. And that’s what we did.”
The improbable comeback began with WSU trailing 60-47 with less than six minutes remaining, as Walton and Gus Okafor hit back-to-back three-pointers, Kenny Pohto blocked a shot inside and Porter finished a reverse layup to reel off an 8-0 run. That forced a USF timeout with the Dons’ lead down to 60-55 with 3:33 remaining.
Porter stole a pass on the ensuing possession with WSU pressing, then found a cutting Walton for an emphatic dunk. The Shockers had two game-tying threes swirl in and out, then USF’s Josh Kunen, a 27% three-point shooter with four total makes beyond the arc in five games this season, drilled his fifth three of the game to extend the Dons’ lead to 63-57 with 1:27 remaining.
Kunen, a fourth-year junior whose previous career-high was three triples in a game, scored 15 points, one off his career-high, and shot 100% on three-pointers.
“I just try to do the same thing every day,” Kunen said. “I try to stick with simple things day in and day out. Over time, I believe things will go your way and I feel like that’s what happened today.”
WSU still had one final push to make behind Porter, who made the front-end free throw, missed the second and grabbed the offensive rebound two straight times to extend what became a four-point possession — as Okafor finished a put-back to trim USF’s lead to 63-61 with 57 seconds left.
The Shockers followed with another defensive stand — their seventh in an eight-possession span during the rally — but Walton’s turnover allowed USF to secure the win at the free throw line.
“The fans were all behind us and I felt like that really kept us going,” Okafor said.
“We were all just trying to keep each other encouraged,” Porter added. “We heard the fan support, telling us we’re one play away, one stop away. Just giving everything you’ve got. We knew the game wasn’t over. We just came up a little short.”
It would be difficult to script a worse first 35 minutes to start a championship game than how Wichita State’s offense performed. The Shockers reverted back to their worst tendencies of limited ball and player movement, which resulted in a lot of contested jumpers. Even when WSU managed to reach the rim, shots wouldn’t fall.
WSU’s shooting percentage cratered below 20% just before halftime, and the Shockers’ points per possession floated around an abysmal 0.70 for most of the game until the late rally.
The Shockers actually defended USF’s dynamic duo of Khalil Shabazz and Tyrell Roberts as well as they could have hoped, as the pairing who entered averaging more than 30 points finished Tuesday with just 20 points on 30% shooting.
WSU’s formula had been to lean on a defense that protected the paint and forced opponents to make jumpers to beat them, a winning strategy considering opponents were making less than 23% of threes against WSU. That changed in a big way on Tuesday when USF made 12 triples, with 10 coming from Kunen, Julian Rishwain and Isaiah Hawthorne, a trio who was shooting a combined 23.9% from deep this season.
But that’s what separated WSU and USF on Tuesday — shot-making.
And that’s why the Shockers had to settle for their fourth runner-up finish in an in-season tournament since last claiming a title in 2013, as the Kansas City tournament joins a group that includes the 2014 Diamond Head Classic, the 2017 Maui Invitational and the 2019 Cancun Challenge.
Despite his shooting troubles, Porter left an impression on San Francisco coach Chris Gerlufsen.
“He was a handful and we talked about him a lot in the scouting report,” Gerlufsen said. “Whenever Wichita State needs a big basket or needs to make a play, be prepared for him to be ultra confident and aggressive. He’s a heck of a player. Six offensive rebounds from a point guard, he just keeps coming at you. I told him after the game I’m a big fan of his and we’ll be following him and Wichita State for the rest of the year. I have a lot of respect for their program.”
San Francisco 67, Wichita State 63 basketball box score
Grand Canyon 69, Northern Iowa 67
Grand Canyon bounced back from a cold-shooting performance in a double-digit loss to Wichita State on Monday to capture the consolation game victory on Tuesday.
Five different players scored at least 10 points for Grand Canyon, led by 16 off the bench from Chance McMillian, as the Antelopes (4-2) led by as many as 17 points in the first half.
Led by 37 combined points from Bowen Born and Tytan Anderson, Northern Iowa rallied to within one possession in the final minutes but never had an opportunity to take the lead. The Panthers (1-3) lost their third straight game.
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 3:04 PM.
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